The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-02-18
ToOTHPICKS BY MILLIONS.
Ii is said There are but Three Factories
in the Land.

There are, | have been told, but three
toothpick factories in the United States.
One of them is located at Belmont. Allie
gany county, New York, just on the edge
of the town and near the banks Of the Gen
esee river. In going over most factories
end, that is, where the completed work is
ready for shipment. This factory was no
exception to the rule, but | will take you
below stairs first and we win then work
upward gradually.
The factory makes two articles Of com
merce. toothpieks, as already stated, and
allumettes, or lamp-lighters. 10 COM
mence at first principles. We started in
the basement, and after exploring the en-
CINE room betook ourselves to where the
woodwork was in its first stages. We
found in this second room piles Of circular
blocks of wood about 1G inches in diameter
by perhaps in thickness. This wood was
hard and soft maple and pine.
These are put in a revolving machine.
which strips them of their bark; they are
then sent up to the first floor. Here they
are again put into another revolving ma
chine, which cuts them into fine strips,
which are then cut into the required shape
for toothpicks. The picks are dropped
out at one side, while the refuse falls from
tine other into shaft and is carried down
to the basement and subsequently used for
firing
Some are round, some square. This lit
tie machine which makes them appears
simple enough to the uninitiated, but in
reality is quite complicated, containing,
we are informed, several hundred knives,
These small articles of after-dinner service
are then taken up to the second story where
they are kept in heated room until suffi-
GENTLY dry for packing,
Descending to the first hoor-for We have
followed our miniature guide up stairs and
down--we enter room where several girls
and women and two or three boys are at
work. One girl we find stamping thin
pasteboard boxes with press and then
folding these boxes by hand with rapidity
impossible to be followed by the eye. The
experienced fingers grow very nimble. On
the other side OF the room girls were sort
ing and arranging the picks" and putting
them in boxes.
The work was executed with an alertness
only acquired through long practice. The
plan of arranging them in bundles prepar-
atory to boxing is this: From the large
heap in front draw smaller quantity, yet
several time larger than the proposed bun
die. These little sticks lay at skies and
seyens" as confused as the most contrary
pile Of jacks-straws.
The first motion is to draw the pile toward
the worker, the second to draw the hands
across the pile literally and carry off any
offending sticks that lay in their way, and
then close in the pile at the third motion
again scattering and arranging. Reiter-
ating these motions with more or less yaria-
ton soon brings order out of chaos, and
the pile grows beautifully less as compact,
neat bundles assume the desired shape and
proportion. They were then quickly boxed
and thrown aside ready for market
Ia the manufacture Of the allumette the
wood was cut into long strips Of TWO differ
ent widths, 4. inches for the narrower,
and rs / remember about inches Tor the
wide, and a thirty second of an inch ii
thickness. These wore then hung from
beams in a DRYING room an.i fle dra nod